Tom Jones with Alison Krauss - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 2-12-2016

Here's another episode of the great "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This one stars Tom Jones, with a guest appearance by Alison Krauss.

I have to admit, I kind of want to dislike Tom Jones, because he's practically the epitome of 1970s show biz cheesiness. But he keeps surprising me with good music. In particular, he had an unexpected late career renaissance. Instead of turning into strictly an oldies act, he went in new directions. You can definitely see that here, starting with a Leonard Cohen cover as the first song. 

At the time of this concert, he was promoting his 2015 album "Long Lost Suitcase." It continues his critically acclaimed renaissance, with more of an emphasis on roots music, like blues and folk. That said, he also played some of the oldies hits, like "Thunderball" and "It's Not Unusual."

One thing I really like about this show is how it's encouraged the main act to have a guest star appearance. That tradition continues here with Alison Krauss. However, unlike some other episodes, her role is relatively minor. Instead of having a few songs to herself, she sang two duets with Jones in the middle of the concert, and then came back for a third one later.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 26 minutes long.

01 Tower of Song (Tom Jones)
02 talk (Tom Jones)
03 Run On (Tom Jones)
04 talk (Tom Jones)
05 Strange Things (Tom Jones)
06 talk (Tom Jones)
07 Delilah (Tom Jones)
08 Take My Love [I Want to Give It] (Tom Jones)
09 talk (Tom Jones)
10 Opportunity to Cry (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
11 Raise a Ruckus (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
12 talk (Tom Jones)
13 Elvis Presley Blues (Tom Jones)
14 talk (Tom Jones)
15 Soul of a Man (Tom Jones)
16 talk (Tom Jones)
17 If I Give My Soul (Tom Jones)
18 Burning Hell (Tom Jones)
19 Don't Knock (Tom Jones)
20 talk (Tom Jones)
21 Didn't It Rain (Tom Jones & Alison Krauss)
22 talk (Tom Jones)
23 Green Green Grass of Home (Tom Jones)
24 'Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone (Tom Jones)
25 Kiss (Tom Jones)
26 talk (Tom Jones)
27 I Wish You Would (Tom Jones)
28 talk (Tom Jones)
29 Thunderball (Tom Jones)
30 talk (Tom Jones)
31 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
32 talk (Tom Jones)
33 What Good Am I (Tom Jones)
34 talk (Tom Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ppbZ6i58

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/gRJiLFTTeo8PoKN/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

Tom Jones - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, BBC TV Studios, London, Britain, 12-31-1971

For about two months, I've posted almost nothing but US Festival albums and VH-1 "Storytellers" albums. During that time, I found a few BBC albums that actually come before other BBC albums I found by that same artist. Like this one. I previously posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 4" for Tom Jones, as well as a "BBC Sessions, Volume 5." But now that I'm posting this one, what had been Volume 4 becomes Volume 5, and what had been Volume 5 becomes Volume 6. I've already updated those two, so if you've downloaded them before, feel free to download them again if you want to stay consistent.

Here's the link to what is now Volume 5:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/11/tom-jones-bbc-sessions-volume-4-in.html

And here's the link to what is now Volume 6:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/02/tom-jones-bbc-sessions-volume-5-bbc.html

Okay, with that out of the way, let's get to what this is. In 1971, Tom Jones was extremely popular, helped by his TV show "This Is Tom Jones." Despite being from Britain (Wales, specifically), he spent the entire year touring overseas. But towards the end of the year, he returned to Britain in time to tape this hour-long special for BBC TV. It was a good time for a special, because he was having hits left and right since 1965 until 1971, but he'd have one big hit in 1972 and then very few for the rest of the decade. He brought out all the stops, performing with an orchestra, a choir, and an American soul group (the Blossoms) at different points in the concert.

If you're a Tom Jones fan, you'll probably dig this. If you're not, beware of slick show-biz cheesiness. Still, it helps that almost every song was a big hit, either by Jones or covers. Some of the covers, such as "River Deep, Mountain High," apparently were never officially released by him.

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Introduction - Till (Tom Jones)
02 Proud Mary (Tom Jones)
03 Tired of Being Alone (Tom Jones)
04 talk (Tom Jones)
05 Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Tom Jones)
06 All I Ever Need Is You (Tom Jones)
07 Witch Queen of New Orleans (Tom Jones)
08 talk (Tom Jones)
09 I'll Be There (Tom Jones & the Blossoms)
10 River Deep, Mountain High (Tom Jones & the Blossoms)
11 Nothing Rhymed (Tom Jones)
12 talk (Tom Jones)
13 In Dreams (Tom Jones)
14 Delilah (Tom Jones)
15 talk (Tom Jones)
16 [It Looks Like] I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Tom Jones)
17 Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)
18 She's a Lady (Tom Jones)
19 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
20 talk (Tom Jones)
21 Amazing Grace (Tom Jones)
22 Resurrection Shuffle (Tom Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17216650/TOMJNS1971BBSssonsVlum4InCncrtBBTVStdosLndonBrtin__12-31-1971.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rQDvXA4P

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert.

Tom Jones - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: BBC Four Sessions, LSO St Luke's, London, Britain, 9-1-2012

Tom Jones has been confounding me for some time, but in a good way.  When I started this blog back in 2018, it never would have occurred to me to post any of his music. But due to my BBC project, I discovered four albums of BBC sessions, and they were better than I'd expected. Then I discovered no less than six albums of his TV show "This Is Tom Jones," and I was positively surprised again, mostly due to all the duets he had with other famous musical artists. 

Now, I've discovered another BBC concert he did from 2012. Normally, I wouldn't be interested. By this time, Jones had been in the music business for nearly 50 years. I've found that most artists that old are way past their prime, and just doing the same stuff they'd done a lot better decades earlier. But in 2010, Jones reinvented himself. He put out "Praise and Blame," a rootsy album that mostly consisted of gospel and blues covers, with a non-commercial sound significantly different from everything else he'd done in his long career. His record company was appalled, with one top executive calling his new album a "sick joke" and trying hard to prevent it from being released. However, Jones had the last laugh, because that album went all the way to Number One in the British charts. 

Jones has stuck with this new style ever since, getting the best critical reviews of his career. In 2012, he put out another album, "Spirit in the Room." This BBC concert pretty much consists entirely either of songs from "Praise and Blame" and "Spirit in the Room." There's none of his earlier hits, no "It's Not Unusual," no "Green, Green Grass of Home," none of that stuff. It's refreshing that he was taking risks in his seventies.

I don't think a musical bootleg of this concert has existed until I made it. I found a high quality video of the concert and converted it into mp3s. There were no problems needing fixing. I had to dig pretty deep the find out the date of the recording and other details though.

You might like this, even if you don't like his well-known hits. Consider that he opened the show with a lesser known Bob Dylan song and closed it with a lesser known Leonard Cohen one to show this is not the Tom Jones you'd normally expect. 

This concert is an hour and 13 minutes long.

UPDATE: On September 27, 2024, I changed the title from "Volume 5" to "Volume 6" due to finding a "Volume 4" I'd previously missed.

01 What Good Am I (Tom Jones)
02 talk (Tom Jones)
03 Hit or Miss (Tom Jones)
04 talk (Tom Jones)
05 Strange Things Happening Every Day (Tom Jones)
06 Ain't No Grave (Tom Jones)
07 Dimming of the Day (Tom Jones)
08 talk (Tom Jones)
09 Fall In and Follow the Band (Tom Jones with Tom Paley)
10 talk (Tom Jones with Tom Paley)
12 Sitting on Top of the World (Tom Jones with Tom Paley)
13 Trouble Me (Tom Jones with Tom Paley)
14 Burning Hell (Tom Jones)
15 talk (Tom Jones)
16 Black, Brown and White (Tom Jones & Josh Osho)
17 talk (Tom Jones)
18 Wisely and Slow (Tom Jones with the Staves)
19 talk (Tom Jones with the Staves)
20 You Don't Knock (Tom Jones with the Staves)
21 talk (Tom Jones)
22 If I Give My Soul (Tom Jones)
23 talk (Tom Jones)
24 You Gotta Move (Tom Jones with Seasick Steve)
25 talk (Tom Jones with Seasick Steve)
26 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Tom Jones with Seasick Steve)
27 talk (Tom Jones with Seasick Steve)
28 It's a Long, Long Way (Tom Jones with Seasick Steve & the Staves)
29 talk (Tom Jones)
30 Run On (Tom Jones)
31 Didn't It Rain (Tom Jones with the Staves)
32 talk (Tom Jones)
33 Tower of Song (Tom Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17171839/TOMJNS2012BBSessonsVolum6BBFourSessons__9-1-2012_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Ye9LaUwq

The cover photo is of Jones in 2012, but I don't know the details.

Tom Jones - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 4-20-1991

I'd posted three albums of Tom Jones BBC Sessions, all from the 1960s. I posted even more albums of his duet-heavy TV show "This Is Tom Jones." I thought I was all done with him. I'm not even that big of a Tom Jones fan, to be honest. But I recently stumbled across this concert from much later. Since it fits my BBC project, I gave it a listen and decided it's pretty good. So here you go.

Towards the late 1980s, it seemed as if Tom Jones was washed up, other than as an oldies act. But then he had a big hit in 1987 with "A Boy from Nowhere" then another hit 1988 with a cover of Prince's "Kiss." His career was revitalized and he would continue to have hits into the 2000s. This concert came after the release of his 1991 album "Carrying a Torch." That album didn't have any big hits or get great reviews. But some songs on it were produced by Van Morrison, including the title song and "I'm Not Feeling It Anymore," both of them featured here. So it brought him back to his soul roots. I think that makes it an especially good time for a concert recording (although a couple of songs from his latest album are duds, in my opinion).

As usual, the BBC sound quality is excellent. One nice thing is that he did a few rocking songs that he never released on album. "Good Times" was a hit by the Easybeats back in the 1960s. "Texas Twister" was a hit by Little Feat just the year before.

This concert is an hour and 43 minutes long.

01 Good Times (Tom Jones)
02 Hard to Handle (Tom Jones)
03 Love Me Tonight (Tom Jones)
04 talk (Tom Jones)
05 Give Me a Chance (Tom Jones)
06 What's New Pussycat (Tom Jones)
07 Help Yourself (Tom Jones)
08 talk (Tom Jones)
09 Killer on the Sheets (Tom Jones)
10 Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings (Tom Jones)
11 I [Who Have Nothing] (Tom Jones)
12 Zip It Up (Tom Jones)
13 Delilah (Tom Jones)
14 Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)
15 Fool for Rock 'n' Roll (Tom Jones)
16 Carrying a Torch (Tom Jones)
17 Some Peace of Mind (Tom Jones)
18 It Must Be You (Tom Jones)
19 I'm Not Feeling It Anymore (Tom Jones)
20 Green, Green Grass of Home (Tom Jones)
21 A Boy from Nowhere (Tom Jones)
22 talk (Tom Jones)
23 I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Tom Jones)
24 talk (Tom Jones)
25 Texas Twister (Tom Jones)
26 Kiss (Tom Jones)
27 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
28 Long Way from Home (Tom Jones)
29 Shelter Me (Tom Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/TJ692fz2

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/ex9otqBGJ06VmYk/file 

The cover photo of Jones is from Wembley Arena in London in May 1991.

Various Artists - BBC Electric Proms, Stax Records: 50 Years of Soul, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 9-1-2017

I've been doing a lot of searching for BBC concerts these days, because their sound quality is almost always fantastic and they're often surprisingly overlooked bootlegs. I've come across some unexpected things, and this is one.

Stax Records was founded in 1957. It was the most prominent American record label for what became known as "southern soul," which had a more rough sound than soul music in the north, like that in Detroit (Motown) or Chicago. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Stax Records was the home to many soul stars like Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Booker T. & the MGs, the Staples Singers, and many more.

You can read more about the record company at Wikipedia if you're not already familiar:

Stax Records - Wikipedia

In 2017, the BBC put on a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Stax. It featured most of the Stax stars who were still alive all those years later - Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave), Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Steve Cropper, and Booker T. Jones. In addition, it featured some younger British soul stars who were influenced by Stax: Beverley Knight, James Morrison, and Ruby Turner. There also was Tom Jones, who was star back in the Stax heyday, and was still going strong 50 years later. The show was emceed by British pianist Jools Holland, and backed by Holland, his band, and his orchestra (frequently used for his BBC TV show).

This concert got rare reviews at the time, and deservedly so. Both the younger and older artists did well. This was a "last hurrah" for most of the older artists, due to the passage of time. 

I've already highlighted the singing skills of Beverley Knight with a series of cover versions albums. I didn't include her covers here, since I knew I'd be posting this. So if you like those albums, there's more of her here to like.

I left off one song on purpose. The concert ended with an encore of "Sweet Soul Music." But it was done to start the show, and done much better. The encore seems unplanned, and frankly it wasn't very good, with too many people trying to sing lead vocals and tripping over each other. This concert is stronger without it.

This concert is an hour and nine minutes long. The sound quality is as good as you'd expect from the BBC, sounding like an officially released album.

01 talk (Jools Holland)
02 Sweet Soul Music (Tom Jones, Beverley Knight & James Morrison)
03 talk (Jools Holland)
04 Hard to Handle (Tom Jones)
05 talk (Jools Holland)
06 I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down (Tom Jones & Sam Moore)
07 talk (Jools Holland)
08 Soul Man (Sam Moore)
09 talk (Jools Holland)
10 B-A-B-Y (Beverley Knight)
11 talk (Jools Holland)
12 I Forgot to Be Your Lover (William Bell)
13 talk (Jools Holland)
14 Private Number (William Bell & Beverley Knight)
15 talk (Jools Holland)
16 Knock on Wood (Eddie Floyd)
17 talk (Jools Holland)
18 Try a Little Tenderness (James Morrison & Steve Cropper)
19 talk (Jools Holland)
20 Green Onions [Instrumental] (Booker T. Jones & Steve Cropper)
21 talk (Jools Holland)
22 I'll Take You There (Ruby Turner)
23 talk (Jools Holland)
24 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Tom Jones & Steve Cropper)
25 talk (Jools Holland)
26 Blues for New Orleans [Instrumental] (Booker T. Jones)
27 talk (Jools Holland)
28 Walking the Dog (Sweetie Irie & Nadia Rose)
29 talk (Jools Holland)
30 Hold On, I'm Coming (Sam Moore & Beverley Knight)
31 talk (Jools Holland)
32 634-5789 (Eddie Floyd & James Morrison)
33 talk (Jools Holland)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701201/VA-BBElectrcPrmsStaxRecrds50YearsSoulRoylAlbrtHall__9-1-2017_atse.zip.html

I found a bunch of good photos of this exact concert (for once). I could have used a photo showing many different stars here, but each of them would be so small that you could barely tell who they are. I decided it was better to chose a picture with just three of the stars, to better show the spirit of the concert. This picture has James Morrison singing into a microphone, with Beverley Knight and Tom Jones looking on.

For the text, I used the Stax Records logo at the top, plus the BBC logo at the bottom. I also found special lettering for the Electric Proms, a series of special BBC summer concerts that ran for a few years.

Tom Jones - This Is Tom Jones, Volume 6 (1970-1972)

Thanks for your patience in my posting a bunch of Tom Jones albums in recent weeks. I know he's not everyone's cup of tea. If you're not into his music, you'll be glad to know this is the last album of his I plan on posting.

To be honest, I'm not that into his music myself, but I do like a lot of his 1960s stuff. And these albums of his TV show "This Is Tom Jones" have merit due to all of the guest stars he dueted with. This album is another example, with duets with: Ella Fitzgerald, John Denver, Shirley Basey, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, Billy Preston, and Englebert Humperdinck.

As usual in this series, all of the songs are officially unreleased, and come from either DVDs or YouTube videos. But this time around, not all of the songs are from his TV show. Most of them are, but his show ended in early 1971. The last four songs date to 1972, and are all appearances he did on other TV shows. 

Of course, he kept going with many more TV show appearances and concerts. He's still going as I write this in 2022. But my interest in his music drops drastically around 1972. He's started his music career in much more of a soul music style, but that had been slowly eroding. You can see that with his choice of guest stars on this album. After 1972 or so, he went even more in a show-biz direction away from his soul (and rock) roots. That said, I think this album is just as strong as most of the others in this series.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Vehicle (Tom Jones)
02 Mary's Boy Child (Tom Jones)
03 Patches (Tom Jones)
04 Sunny (Tom Jones & Ella Fitzgerald)
05 Silent Night (Tom Jones, Ella Fitzgerald & the Treorchy Male Choir)
06 All Right Now (Tom Jones)
07 Carolina in My Mind (Tom Jones & John Denver)
08 With a Little Help from My Friends (Tom Jones & Shirley Bassey)
09 This Guy's in Love with You (Tom Jones & Petula Clark)
10 She's a Lady (Tom Jones)
11 Sweet Sweetheart (Tom Jones & Dusty Springfield)
12 Ball of Confusion [That's What the World Is Today] (Tom Jones)
13 Tired of Being Alone (Tom Jones)
14 Games People Play (Tom Jones, Billy Preston & Engelbert Humperdinck)
15 Witch Queen of New Orleans (Tom Jones & Engelbert Humperdinck)
16 Baby, You've Got What It Takes (Tom Jones & Dusty Springfield)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700849/TOMJNS1970-1972_ThisIsTmJnsVolum6_atse.zip.html

As with the other albums in this series, I chose a cover photo of Jones from one of his duets instead of him alone. This one features him and Dusty Springfield.

Tom Jones - This Is Tom Jones, Volume 5 (1970)

I haven't posted much since getting back from vacation, been busy, but I hope to post a bunch in the next few days to make up for it. First up is some more Tom Jones. This is the fifth out of six volumes of his performances from his TV show, "This Is Tom Jones."

As with the other volumes, this has a lot of duets on it. In fact, ten out of the 14 songs are duets. And also like those others, he sings and plays with some of the biggest stars in music at this time. The duets here are with: Leslie Uggams, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Burt Bacharach, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Reed, and the Supremes. I must admit I'd never heard of Uggams before, but it's ridiculous that he had so many duets with those other big stars. And consider that this is only from one portion of one season of his show, and I was only able to find some of the duets done during that time.

The duets with Aretha Franklin are particularly significant, in my opinion. They did four songs together, for almost 10 minutes of music. I doubt Franklin ever dueted with anyone as much as she did with Jones on this TV appearance. And while the Ray Charles duet is technically only one track, it's a medley of three songs that lasts seven minutes.

As with the other albums in this series, this is sourced from DVDs and YouTube videos. The DVD tracks sound better, not surprisingly, but it all had to meet my usual sound quality standards.

Even if you're not much of a Tom Jones fan, there's a lot to like here. Yeah, there are a few cheesy show-biz tunes. But there also are plenty of duets with some all-time greats, generally doing classic songs.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Somewhere (Tom Jones & Leslie Uggams)
02 Venus (Tom Jones)
03 If I Ruled the World (Tom Jones)
04 That Thing Called Love - Understanding - Bright Lights (Tom Jones & Ray Charles)
05 I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Tom Jones & Smokey Robinson)
06 What the World Needs Now (Tom Jones with Burt Bacharach)
07 Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head (Tom Jones & Burt Bacharach)
08 It's Not Unusual - See Saw (Tom Jones & Aretha Franklin)
09 Spirit in the Dark (Tom Jones & Aretha Franklin)
10 The Party's Over (Tom Jones & Aretha Franklin)
11 Funky Chicken (Tom Jones)
12 Guitar Man (Tom Jones & Jerry Reed)
13 River Deep, Mountain High (Tom Jones & Supremes)
14 Try a Little Tenderness (Tom Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700848/TOMJNS1970_ThisIsTmJnsVolum5_atse.zip.html

As with the other albums in this series, I figured it would be more interesting to show a photo of Jones from one of his duets on the cover rather than him alone. So I chose him singing with Aretha Franklin from the performance featured here.

Tom Jones - This Is Tom Jones, Volume 4 (1969-1970)

Here's another album based on the TV show hosted by Tom Jones, "This Is Tom Jones." It's the fourth of six such albums.

As usual, there are lots of duets with big names. On this album, the duets are with: Little Richard, Glen Campbell, Janis Joplin, the Rascals, Dusty Springfield, and Joe Cocker. Probably the most notable was the duet with Joplin. She died so young, that I think this is the only major duet she did on TV.

There's not much else to say. As with the rest of the series, all the songs here are officially unreleased. All the shows are from the "This Is Tom Jones" show with the exception of "Proud Mary," which is from another TV show. But I slotted it in chronologically with the others. Also like the rest of the series, the sound quality is pretty good overall, but variable. Some of the songs come from a DVD source and sound great, while others come from YouTube videos, and are more of a mixed bag.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Don't Fight It (Tom Jones)
02 I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' (Tom Jones)
03 Jenny, Jenny - Rip It Up (Tom Jones & Little Richard)
04 Proud Mary (Tom Jones)
05 You Came a Long Way from St. Louis (Tom Jones & Glen Campbell)
06 Land of 1000 Dances (Tom Jones)
07 Raise Your Hand (Tom Jones & Janis Joplin)
08 In the Midnight Hour (Tom Jones & the Rascals)
09 Bony Maronie (Tom Jones)
10 I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (Tom Jones & Dusty Springfield)
11 Help Yourself (Tom Jones)
12 My Funny Valentine (Tom Jones)
13 Delta Lady (Tom Jones & Joe Cocker)
14 We Can Work It Out (Tom Jones)
15 She Loves Me (Tom Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700844/TOMJNS1969-1970_ThisIsTmJnsVolum4_atse.zip.html

As with the covers of the other albums in this series, I thought it would be more interesting to show Jones during one of the duets instead of him alone. Since the duet with Joplin is the most celebrated one here, I used a photo from that.

Tom Jones - This Is Tom Jones, Volume 3 (1969)

Here's another volume of Tom Jones singing on his TV show "This Is Tom Jones." For the previous two volumes, I suggested that the duets he did were a highlight. For this volume, that was kicked up a notch or two: ten out of 14 songs here are with other artists.

There are a lot of big names here: Bobby Darin, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Wilson Pickett, the Moody Blues, "Mama" Cass Elliot, Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash, and Little Richard. (I must confess I'm not that familiar with Diahann Carroll, but she won Tony, Globe Globe and Emmy awards.) 

The one I want to draw attention to is Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY). How weird is it that those guys did a duet with Tom friggin' Jones?! Jones sang lead on David Crosby's "Long Time Gone." What's even more interesting is how good it is. You can find a YouTube video of the performance, which has over 2 million views as I write this (in March 2022). There are thousands of comments, and nearly all of them are full of praise. One I particularly liked said, "Am I crazy or is this one of the greatest live rock and roll performances of all time?" In :Shakey," a biography of Neil Young, Young's manager Elliott Roberts said CSNY was embarrassed about appearing with Jones, who was the epitome of cheesy at the time. Roberts said that Young ripped him about it for years afterwards. But if you watch the video, it looks obvious to me that CSNY were smiling widely and having a good time. Stills in particular seemed inspired by the competition and sang his vocal part an octave higher than he usually did.

Of course, Jones was the epitome of cheesy - as "show-biz" as it gets. But he also was a damn good singer. And look at the list of classic songs here, and the legends he sang with. There's lots of good music here.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 You Keep Me Hangin' On - More Today than Yesterday (Tom Jones & Diahann Carroll)
02 Let It Be Me (Tom Jones)
03 Worried Man Blues - Aquarius-Let the Sunshine In (Tom Jones & Bobby Darin)
04 Fly Me to the Moon (Tom Jones)
05 Long Time Gone (Tom Jones & Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
06 Hi-Heeled Sneakers (Tom Jones)
07 Lodi (Tom Jones)
08 Barefootin' - In the Midnight Hour - Hey Jude (Tom Jones & Wilson Pickett)
09 It's a Hang Up Baby (Tom Jones with the Moody Blues)
10 When This Battle Is Over (Tom Jones & Cass Elliot)
11 Walk the Line (Tom Jones, Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash)
12 Working in the Coal Mine- Dark as a Dungeon - Sixteen Tons - John Henry (Tom Jones & Johnny Cash)
13 Rip It Up (Tom Jones & Little Richard)
14 Send Me Some Lovin' - Good Golly, Miss Molly (Tom Jones & Little Richard)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700842/TOMJNS1969_ThisIsTmJnsVolum3_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I wanted to get a good picture of CSNY with Jones. Unfortunately, CSNY were scattered all over the stage, and it was rare to get more than a couple of them in the frame at any one time. So I went with one of Crosby staring at Jones.

Tom Jones - This Is Tom Jones, Volume 2 (1969)

Here's a quick recap: from 1969 to 1971, Tom Jones was the host of a British TV show called "This Is Tom Jones." He sang several songs each episode, and also had musical guests who sang songs, plus he typically sang duets with the guests. This means there's a musical treasure trove of performances, all of which remain unreleased on record (though some have been released on DVD). I've found enough for six albums, though there's many more performances I've been unable to find.

As with the other volumes in this series, it's the duets that I think makes this most interesting. For this album, he sang with Salena Jones, Fran Jeffries, Cher, Stevie Wonder, and Sammy Davis, Jr. On later volumes, the number of duets will be even larger.

In terms of sound quality, all the albums in this series are about the same. Some of this is sourced from DVD and the rest is from YouTube videos. The DVD material sounds better. But I didn't use any YouTube songs that sounded dodgy.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 That Old Black Magic (Tom Jones & Salena Jones)
02 When I Fall in Love (Tom Jones)
03 Hello Young Lovers (Tom Jones)
04 Baby, You've Got What It Takes (Tom Jones & Fran Jeffries)
05 Shake (Tom Jones)
06 Turn On Your Love Light (Tom Jones)
07 Lucille (Tom Jones)
08 The Beat Goes On (Tom Jones & Cher)
09 A Place in the Sun - Uptight [Everything's Alright] - Nothing's Too Good for My Baby - It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones & Stevie Wonder)
10 Autumn Leaves (Tom Jones)
11 See Saw (Tom Jones)
12 What the World Needs Now (Tom Jones & Sammy Davis, Jr.)
13 You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You & I Got a Woman (Tom Jones & Sammy Davis, Jr.)
14 Love Me Tonight (Tom Jones)
15 I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Tom Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701293/TOMJNS1969_ThisIsTmJnsVolum2_atse.zip.html

As I mentioned with Volume 1, for the album covers in this series, I thought it would be more interesting to show Tom Jones singing duets instead of him alone. So here he is with Stevie Wonder, when they sang the four song medley included here.

Tom Jones - This Is Tom Jones, Volume 1 (1969)

This is the start a new six album series. I came across this music while putting together three Tom Jones BBC sessions albums. I learned that in 1969, Jones stopped performing for the BBC because he had a TV show on a rival British network. That show lasted until early 1971.

Jones is known for the power of his voice, not his vocal subtlety. That's true, but he could channel that power to sing songs in nearly every genre of music, which made him an ideal TV show host. For each episode, he would sing several songs, often of the big hits of the day, and one or more guest stars would sing some songs. But also for every episode, Jones would sing duets with the guests. This last aspect is particularly interesting to me. Popular music was peaking in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and many musical legends were in their prime, or at least still kicking: Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Glen Campbell, Dusty Springfield, Joe Cocker, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Burt Bacharach, the Supremes, Ella Fitzgerald, John Denver, and so on. Jones sang duets with ALL of them on his TV show, and many more! So even if you're not much of a Jones fan, this series is interesting for all of the star power of the many duets.

This first volume has fewer duets than most of the other volumes. But still, we have duets with Nancy Wilson, Sergio Mendes & the Brazil '66, Jerry Lee Lewis, Barbara Eden, and Mass Cass Elliott. (Barbara Eden was the genie in the "I Dream of Jeannie" TV show, but it turns out she was a very capable singer.) The Jerry Lee Lewis duet is a particular highlight in my opinion. Jones has stated that Lewis was one of his biggest musical influences, so it's not surprising that he and Lewis went off on a medley that lasted eight minutes. Plus, Lewis played his distinctive piano style on another song where he didn't sing.

None of the music in this series has been officially released. Well, unless you count DVD releases. I found about half of it from DVD sources, and the other half from YouTube videos. There are many more songs that I couldn't find, including even more intriguing duets. So if you have things I've missed, please let me know. The songs are roughly chronological by the order of the episodes. The DVD sourced songs have been sound quality, but even the YouTube ones sound pretty good. (I didn't include the rough sounding ones that I found.) 

However, one snag you'll find across this series is that sometimes there's audience cheering at the end, and sometimes not. Sometimes, it's only for a second or two and then quickly fades out. From the DVD sources, I found that this was often due to the fact that the pacing on the TV show was so fast that the show would be off to a commercial break or the next thing well before the audience clapping finished. I could have carefully patched in more clapping from other songs, but I'm not a big enough of a Tom Jones fan to do that. So please bear with that one flaw.

And speaking of flaws, since this isn't a proper BBC session kind of album, there isn't the problem of DJs talking over the music. I still had one "[Edit]" though, on the song "The Look of Love." That's because the YouTube video I used as the source had the first line of the song missing. Luckily, that verse was repeated later in the song, so I was able to patch that in.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Johnny B. Goode (Tom Jones)
02 Kansas City (Tom Jones)
03 Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Tom Jones & Nancy Wilson)
04 [Ghost] Riders in the Sky (Tom Jones)
05 Mas Que Nada (Tom Jones & Sergio Mendes & the Brazil '66)
06 Money [That's What I Want] (Tom Jones)
07 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Tom Jones)
08 Yesterday (Tom Jones)
09 Gentle on My Mind (Tom Jones)
10 Great Balls of Fire - Move On Down the Line - Long Tall Sally - Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On (Tom Jones & Jerry Lee Lewis)
11 Funny How Time Slips Away (Tom Jones with Jerry Lee Lewis)
12 The Look of Love [Edit] (Tom Jones & Barbara Eden)
13 One Night - Do Right Woman - Love Me - A Big Hunk O' Love - Respect - I Guess I'll Always Love You (Tom Jones & Cass Elliot)
14 It's a Man's Man's Man's World (Tom Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Hf6EuogW

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/cnJhfXE6rW8iDUw/file

Since the duets are a special highlight of this series, I decided to use photos of duets for all the covers, even though those aren't the best representation of the musical content. So for instance this cover shows Jones and Jerry Lee Lewis dueting on the show, even though Lewis is only on a small portion of the music here.

Oh, and I took the text for "This Is Tom Jones" at the top from the cover of one of the DVD boxes. It looks to be the font style and colors actually used for the show. However, the words had been stacked vertically to make more of a square shape. I rearranged them so they'd fit across the top of the cover better.

Tom Jones - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1967-1968

Here is the third and last of Tom Jones's "BBC Sessions" albums. However, I'm far from done with him. He had a British TV show from 1969 to 1971 where he seemingly sang duets with every famous musician on the planet at the time. I'm planning to post no less than six albums of that material.

As I mentioned in previous volumes in this series, Jones started out as a rock and soul singer, but switched more to ballads when he started having huge hits with them in late 1966. The volume definitely has a few ballads, but it still is more tilted towards rock and soul, like "Land of a 1000 Dances" and "Don't Fight It." I suppose those still were the kinds of songs he wanted to sing when he wasn't promoting his latest A-side singles.

Like the previous volumes, everything here is officially unreleased. However, the main bootleg source I used ended right at the end of 1967. I know he did some more BBC sessions in 1968. I've found mention of four sessions, which would mean at least a couple songs for each. But it seems all of those were lost to time. (If anyone has any of those, please let me know.) To make up for that, the last two songs are from 1968 appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show," including his biggest 1968 hit, "Delilah."

As far as I can tell, he didn't do any BBC sessions in 1969 or after. Presumably, he had his hands full with his TV show (on a rival British station). 

The sound quality is excellent throughout, though maybe a bit lower on "Show Me" and "Baby, Baby, Baby," which comes from Dusty Springfield's TV show at the time instead of a proper BBC session. Note though the songs with "[Edit]" in their titles. As usual, this means BBC DJs talking over the music, and as usual, I fixed that with the audio editing software X-Minus.

This album is 48 minutes long.

UPDATE: On May 15, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. I added one song I'd previously missed, "Show Me."

01 Big Boss Man [Edit] (Tom Jones)
02 My Prayer [Edit] (Tom Jones)
03 Money Honey [Edit] (Tom Jones)
04 Trying to Find My Baby (Tom Jones)
05 Sea of Heartbreak [Edit] (Tom Jones)
06 [It Looks Like] I'll Never Fall in Love Again (Tom Jones)
07 Land of a Thousand Dances (Tom Jones)
08 Baby, Baby, Baby (Dusty Springfield & Tom Jones)
09 Show Me (Tom Jones)
10 I Can't Stop Loving You [Edit] (Tom Jones)
11 Sixteen Tons [Edit] (Tom Jones)
12 Ain't That Good News (Tom Jones)
13 I'm Coming Home (Tom Jones)
14 Don't Fight It [Edit] (Tom Jones)
15 Danny Boy (Tom Jones)
16 Delilah (Tom Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WjK2e68y

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jUoFjzZAXXelVjA/file

The cover photo comes from a TV special filmed in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1967.

Tom Jones - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1966-1967

Here's another album of Tom Jones at the BBC.

I don't have much to say this time that I didn't say for Volume 1. Like that, this is all unreleased material. This time, all but the first three songs come from actual BBC sessions. Those first three come from a concert in France that was broadcast on French TV (and can be found on YouTube). That fills in a couple of songs he surprisingly didn't play at the BBC, especially "What's New Pussycat."

Just like Volume 1, there are a bunch of songs where the BBC DJ talked over the starts and/or ends of the songs. But as I like to do, I used the audio editing program X-Minus to wipe the talking while keeping the underlying music.

As I mentioned last time, Jones originally was much more of a soul and rock singer. But then in late 1966, he had a huge number one hit in Britain with "Green, Green Grass of Home," and he sang a lot more ballads and other show biz-type stuff after that. One can see that transition here, with that song plus some other similar ones. But still, the vast majority of the songs are the soul and rock stuff that he loved the most.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Stop Breaking My Heart (Tom Jones)
02 Untrue Unfaithful (Tom Jones)
03 What's New Pussycat (Tom Jones)
04 Not Responsible [Edit] (Tom Jones)
05 Stupidity (Tom Jones)
06 Once There Was a Time (Tom Jones)
07 Sticks and Stones [Edit] (Tom Jones)
08 Summertime (Tom Jones)
09 Green, Green Grass of Home (Tom Jones)
10 Livin' Lovin' Wreck [Edit] (Tom Jones)
11 Shake [Edit] (Tom Jones)
12 He'll Have to Go [Edit] (Tom Jones)
13 Detroit City (Tom Jones)
14 I [Who Have Nothing] [Edit] (Tom Jones)
15 Barefootin' [Edit] (Tom Jones)
16 Do It Right [Edit] (Tom Jones)
17 Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings (Tom Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700836/TOMJNS1966-1967_BBSessonsVolum2_atse.zip.html

The album cover photo shows him at a concert in 1966.

Tom Jones - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1964-1966

I'm not much of a Tom Jones fan. He's done some good stuff over his long musical career, but also tons of cheesy, show biz stuff. A couple of weeks ago, it never would have even occurred to me to post any of his music. But it turns out her performed quite a lot for the BBC. In fact, there are three albums' worth of material just from 1964 to 1968. Then he had a TV show from 1969 to 1971 where practically every big name musician you could think of guested and sang duets with him. I'm going to post all that stuff.

After listening to his BBC material, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. I did some reading on him as a result, and it turns out his original musical passion was to belt out soul and rock music like his musical heroes Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. For the first couple of years he tried focusing on that, but he didn't have big hits other than "It's Not Unusual." Then his management suggested his tone down his music and image. He put out "Green, Green Grass of Home" in late 1966. It was a massive hit in Britain, spending seven weeks at number one. He ran with that success, and did a lot more music in that vein. 

But his real passion remained the more soulful material. In fact, when he first came to the US in 1965, he played at the Apollo Theater in New York City, a famous soul concert venue with all black audiences. The audience was said to be shocked that he was white. But he won them over so thoroughly that he got a standing ovation lasting many minutes.

Especially on this first album, you get a lot more of that Tom Jones, and not much of his cheesy, show biz side. He does songs made famous by the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Ray Charles, and Little Richard, and does them well. So if you like that kind of thing, don't overlook this.

None of his BBC material has been officially released, which is a shame. The songs with "[Edit]" in their titles had the usual problem of BBC DJs talking over the music, and I applied the usual treatment of using the audio editing program X-Minus to wipe that talking clean while keeping the underlying music.

It's both sad and funny to me that the BBC apparently ignored Tom Jones when he first started releasing music in 1964 because they considered him too sexually appealing. It wasn't any specific lyric in a song on anything like that; they rejected him as a whole. It was only when his had a huge hit with "It's Not Unusual" that the BBC relented due to overwhelming popular demand (well after it had peaked) and started booking recording sessions with him. 

As a result, there's only one song from 1964 here, a version of his first single "Chills and Fever," and that's from a non-BBC TV appearance. Everything else is from the BBC, with the exception of "Whatcha Gonna Do," which is from a performance on the "Ed Sullivan" show in the US.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Chills and Fever [Edit] (Tom Jones)
02 Can I Get a Witness (Tom Jones)
03 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
04 Once upon a Time [Edit] (Tom Jones)
05 Lucille (Tom Jones)
06 Little by Little [Edit] (Tom Jones)
07 Bama Lama Bama Loo (Tom Jones)
08 Whatcha Gonna Do (Tom Jones)
09 Spanish Harlem (Tom Jones)
10 Whatcha Gonna Do about It (Tom Jones)
11 With These Hands (Tom Jones)
12 What'd I Say [Edit] (Tom Jones)
13 In the Midnight Hour [Edit] (Tom Jones)
14 Thunderball (Tom Jones)
15 Treat Her Right (Tom Jones)
16 The Rose [Edit] (Tom Jones)
17 The Key to My Heart (Tom Jones)
18 Long Tall Sally (Tom Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700834/TOMJNS1964-1966_BBSessonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is of Tom Jones in concert in 1965. I don't know the exact date or location.